Israeli army arrest and beat two Palestinian men in Hebron

Thursday 29-May-2014. At approximately 11pm yesterday evening in al-Khalil (Hebron), ISM activists went to checkpoint 56 where they had been told there was an ongoing incident. Palestinian eyewitnesses gave the following account:

About an hour earlier, two Palestinians youths were detained by the Israeli army on the H2 [under full Israeli civil and security control] side of the checkpoint. They were both handcuffed and blindfolded. The army then proceeded to beat both youth violently, one of the youths suffered injuries that required medical treatment. A Palestinian ambulance was called but Palestinian medics were not allowed to attend the two youths. Instead, the youth who was seriously injured was treated by the Israeli military and then taken away under arrest.

At present, the whereabouts of the two youths, and their injuries, are unknown.

The two youths were named by one eyewitness as Mohummad Jamal, 22, and Hamud Jama, 25.

During the incident, approximately 20 Israeli soldiers were surrounding the detained youths, preventing the assembled Palestinians from photographing and videoing the incident. Israeli police were also in attendance. Later, a settler from a nearby illegal settlement present at the scene, attempted to assault one of the Palestinians who was filming the incident. He began shouting; he then got into his car and attempted to drive straight through the crowd of Palestinians, running over the foot of one of them. Neither the Israeli soldiers nor police present attempted to take any action against him.